Jury concludes that Caterpillar owes $100m to importer amid US lawsuit

New yellow Caterpillar excavators arranged in a line. Image: scharfsinn86 via AdobeStock - stock.adobe.com

A jury in the US has concluded that Caterpillar must pay $100 million to an importer, following a legal dispute between the two companies.

The Delaware federal jury found that importer International Construction Products (ICP) suffered contract-related damages and that Caterpillar was responsible, according to a report by .

ICP, based in Asheville, North Carolina, imported and sold new heavy construction equipment directly to consumers through the IronPlanet auction platform,

But in a lawsuit, ICP claimed that IronPlanet ended its contract with it in 2014 鈥渁s a direct result of pressure from Caterpillar and others鈥.

Caterpillar claimed in turn that ICP had 鈥渄ecided to stop doing business with IronPlanet鈥 and denied that it had interfered in any business agreement between ICP and the online forum.

Caterpillar further argued that ICP had not suffered any damages.

In a lawsuit, ICP alleged that Caterpillar had violated US antitrust law, as well as making a claim for contract-related damages.

The jury did not find in favour of ICP鈥檚 antitrust claim. But it did find that ICP had proven that Caterpillar 鈥渢ortiously interfered with ICP鈥檚 Hosted Store Agreement with IronPlanet, thereby causing IronPlanet to breach that agreement鈥.

The jury also found that ICP had suffered damages as a result of Caterpillar鈥檚 interference. It set the amount of ICP鈥檚 damages on its claim to $100 million.

Caterpillar said in a statement to Reuters that it 鈥渞espects the jury鈥檚 verdict and will review our legal options鈥.

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